A Kick in the Behind

"Free Spirit"
by Duy Huynh

My annual physical was a few weeks ago on October 1. I just received the results from the blood work on Monday, and my fasting blood glucose was borderline high (101 and the top of the range is 100). What?! I gave up sugar (in addition to all grains) on July 25, ten weeks earlier so how can this be? In all my 49 years of eating mostly crap most of the time, my blood glucose had never tested high. I even remember thinking, "how am I getting away with this?" And by "this" I mean eating all this sugar and still reporting normal blood glucose? Well, it's no surprise that I wasn't getting away with anything. In order to maintain normal blood glucose levels in spite of my horrendous diet, my pancreas was pumping out insulin like crazy all those years, resulting in my current insulin resistant state. Of course that's my own diagnosis after spending the last year learning about nutrition and metabolism. My doctor isn't going to diagnose this. She'll just keep testing my blood and let me know when I've moved into the diabetic range. At that point she'll give me a low-carb diet to follow.

I looked back in my food diary to see what I had eaten the day prior to the 11am appointment. We were between challenges, and I was a little looser with my diet than I had been in previous weeks. I was enjoying a bit of a break from the close scrutiny, but was still eating mostly primal. Dinner the night before the appointment was Paleo Night at Urban Pl8. I remember commenting to Damon the next day that it was richer and sweeter than I was used to eating, and I felt it. That same meal would not phase someone with a healthier metabolism than mine. Their body would have blood sugar levels back to normal within an hour of eating that meal. My body was still working on getting it under control more than 12 hours later.

So what do I make of all this? Well, for one, it explains so much. It explains why the weight isn't coming off as fast as I would like. I'm insulin resistant. Duh! I guess I knew this already, but there's nothing like seeing it in black and white after 10 weeks of eating a diet designed to improve the very thing I'm seeing in the report. It underscores just how important it is for me to keep carbs low; even "good" carbs need to be kept in check. And when I do splurge, it needs to be in moderation, followed by a walk or some activity to help my body bring blood sugar levels back to normal. Having this new information is a kick in the behind -- just in case I was starting to wonder what's so bad about a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast seven days a week.